Brachytherapy

My wife who is 35 with stage 3 rectal cancer from 2006 has had the first reoccurence in Jan 08, after xeloda and 28 radiation therapy the radiation oncologist wants to talk about placing radiation seeds into that area.  Has anyone heard of or going through this? 

Yes. They use radioactive seed implantation form many cancers. In fact they are suggesting that for my sister who has bile duct cancer. My uncle had it done for prostate cancer. Google 'brachytherapy'. You will become very educated in a short time. And good luck to your wife.

 

On 3/26/2008 William8 wrote:

My wife who is 35 with stage 3 rectal cancer from 2006 has had the first reoccurence in Jan 08, after xeloda and 28 radiation therapy the radiation oncologist wants to talk about placing radiation seeds into that area.  Has anyone heard of or going through this? 

Hi,

So sorry to hear about your wife. My husband had this treatment for Cholangiocarcinoma and colon cancer. It worked very well! he was only given 18 months to live and that was in 2005!

It is a very easy procedure and it puts the radiation exactly on the cancer site. I highly reccomend it. Good luck to you both.

Charlene.

 

On 3/26/2008 William8 wrote:

My wife who is 35 with stage 3 rectal cancer from 2006 has had the first reoccurence in Jan 08, after xeloda and 28 radiation therapy the radiation oncologist wants to talk about placing radiation seeds into that area.  Has anyone heard of or going through this? 

Hi William:  I was surprised to see Brachytherapy being used for rectal cancer, but it has been used for awhile now for Prostate Cancer.  My husband chose Brachytherapy instead of a Prostectomy, and it got all the cancer cells.  He has been in remission now for over a year.  He goes every 6 months to be checked.  Just get at least 3 opinions before you make any choices.  God Bless Your Both and may your wife do well.

                                             Suzzie

I first learned of this type of radiation therapy when I was diagnosed with breast cancer last March 07.  Because of the location (deep) and several other factors, I qualified for the Mammosite radiation -- which is the same type of treatment as the brachytherapy.  I had treatments 2X day for only 5 days -- as opposed to 33 days.  The comments I heard were that it was a good option not only for the length of the treatment but because you have the opportunity to zero in much closer to the problem area, rather than radiating a much larger area.  I was pleased with the process and the fact that it was complete in a week.  I'm only 1 year after surgery, but so far everything looks good.  I hope that the brachytherapy works well.

I am a nurse who sees a lot of brachytherapy by radiation oncologists and it is very effective but not comfortable. Check out the web sites.

On 3/26/2008 William8 wrote:

My wife who is 35 with stage 3 rectal cancer from 2006 has had the first reoccurence in Jan 08, after xeloda and 28 radiation therapy the radiation oncologist wants to talk about placing radiation seeds into that area.  Has anyone heard of or going through this? 

 

My partner has cholangiocarcinoma and he is 4 years ahead of his poor prognosis - the best results were from this Brachytherapy - in Australia it was Sirtx spheres - reduced tumour significantly - Avastin was also good as is Tarceva - try it and dont be afraid - it has an excellent success rate and speak with the radiologist for an education in this process

I am a 6 year survivor of colorectal cancer stage III.   I participated in a clinical trial and the findings were published last month.

Have your wife's oncologist check on it. UCLA  jco.ascopubs.org

Olxaliplatin combined wth Bolus Flourouracil and Leucovorin.  I did a 6 hour infusion every Wednesday for 6 months.  Pretty debilitating, but I'm here and healthy!

 I had resection surgery and am now 63 years old.

Hi: I had seeds placed on the other side of my body (my tongue) one year ago. I had some later problems due to the weakening of my tongue but other than that I did not know they were there.  In fact, they are still there but the radiation half life has rendered them non radioactive.  In general I think these work well and are basically non intrusive.  If your wife is also getting beam radiation talk about it with your doctor as in my case the combination was very bad causing burning of my esophegus.  Good luck.  Ed